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Despite the fact that the whole world is now aware of the saga of the Iranian journalist Akbar Ganji and his hunger strike in Iran’s Evin prison, and although all of the institutions under your auspice have protested against the unjust treatment of this courageous writer, and against a background of strong protests of the major European and American members of your Security Council, and although his lawyer, Ms. Shirin Ebaadi, the Noble Prize Laureate has begged for the cooperation of the world’s human right organizations, your response to reporters who yesterday asked for your comments in this regard was that: “I have not enough information on this case and, thus, cannot comment on it.”

Dear Sir! As citizens of the planet earth who believe in the Declaration of Human Rights, we have a few questions for you
:"How much information on a case is considered to be “enough” for you? Once this threshold is reached, what would you comment on such a case? And, as the head of a world organization that is created to expand peace and human rights all over the word, what will your action be beafter uttering that comment?

Dear Mr. Anaan! United Nation Organization was not created to ignore the atrocities of its member governments. Such connivance actually defies the purpose of the UN mission. And you are not selected to head such a large and expensive organization only to act as a diplomat who uses an ambiguous language not to talk about the misconducts of a member of his organization.

Dear Mr. Anaan! We think that, according to the mission statement of the UN and the responsibilities bestowed on you, it is now the time for you to get “enough” information about the case of this freedom-loving citizen of our planet through your numerous sources (or just by calling Ms. Ebaadi and talking with her for a few minutes). And once this information seems enough to you, you are expected not only to comment on this case but to act vigorously and effectively.

Dear Mr. Anaan! If you continue to keep yourself unaware of this vital case, you will soon find that the blood of a courageous journalist who has died in a corner of a political prison has tainted your hands too.

With heartily regards for an organization that is set up to protect the nations and not the government,

The Open Letter to Mr. Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary General Petition to Mr. Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary General was created by Citizens of planet Earth and written by Shokooh Mirzadegi - Esmail Nooriala (esmail@nooriala.com). This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.

WASHINGTON - As three senators joined President Bush's call for the Iranian regime to release dissident journalist Akbar Ganji from prison, the secretary-general of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, yesterday refused to comment when pressed, claiming ignorance on the matter.

When asked by a New York Sun reporter if he would speak out on behalf of Mr. Ganji in light of the president's statement Tuesday, Mr. Annan said, "I don't know enough about the case, so I'd prefer not to comment."

Iranian authorities initially arrested Mr. Ganji in 2000 for publishing a book and writing news stories charging his country's political leaders with playing a role in the murder of dissident intellectuals in the late 1990s. Since June 11, when he was sent back to Evin prison after a brief release for medical treatment, Mr. Ganji has been on hunger strike, subsisting on a diet of sugar cubes and water.

In separate statements, Senator Biden, a Democrat of Delaware, and Senators Brownback and Santorum, Republicans of Kansas and Pennsylvania, respectively, called for the mullahs to release Mr. Ganji, whose health is failing, according to his wife. A press secretary for the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Richard Lugar, a Republican of Indiana, had no comment when asked yesterday.

On Tuesday, Mr. Bush specifically called on the United Nations to come out against Mr. Ganji's detention as his medical condition has deteriorated significantly. In a letter smuggled out of Evin last month, the writer reported that he had lost more than 40 pounds on his hunger strike.

Yesterday, 33 Iranian political activists wrote Mr. Annan requesting that the secretary-general personally press Mr. Ganji's case with the Iranian regime, according to the Associated Press. In an open letter the activists wrote, "For the sake of human rights, [we] ask you to intervene directly in Ganji's case and follow it as an urgent human rights issue," according to the AP.

A liaison of the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Commission, Greg Mokhaiber, told the Sun yesterday that any call for U.N. aid to a jailed journalist, including one from the American president, is referred to the commission, the membership of which includes repeated rights violators such as Sudan and Libya.

"A statement to the press is not the most direct route to the United Nations," Mr. Mokhaiber said. A secretary-general is not bound to respond, he said, adding that in the past Mr. Annan has raised publicly specific cases of victims of human rights abuse. In his report on reform earlier this year, Mr. Annan recommended replacing the 53-member Human Rights Commission with a smaller council that would bar membership to rights offenders.

Iran's foreign ministry yesterday criticized Mr. Bush for raising Mr. Ganji's case in light of reported abuses of detainees at the American detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Calling the statement from the president "interventionist," the ministry's spokesman, Hamid Reza Asefi, told state-run radio yesterday, "The White House talks about violations of human rights in Iran while the world hates the U.S. violations of human rights in both Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib prisons."

Mr. Ganji's case is attracting attention from both sides of the political spectrum. Mr. Biden, who has favored direct negotiations with Iran on its nuclear programs, responded yesterday to the Sun's query about Mr. Ganji with a tough statement: "The Iranian government should release Akbar Ganji immediately and unconditionally. Ganji is a symbol of courage and a source of inspiration as he defies the forces of repression and intimidation that keep the hard-line mullahs in power."

Senator Brownback, who personally attached amendments to the 2004 and 2005 budgets authorizing the expenditure of American funds for Iranian democracy organizations in the country, yesterday offered his prayers for Mr. Ganji.

"Mr. Ganji represents many other political prisoners who are denied of their basic rights. Many Iranians claim that they live their daily lives as prisoners to the regime where they are denied most every fundamental human right," he said in a statement.

Mr. Santorum's communications director, Robert Traynham, yesterday said, "Mr. Ganji is in jail because he dared to criticize the hostile regime and expose the serial murders of intellectuals and journalists who have also spoken out for Iranian freedom. He and the others should be released immediately and given the same rights that all human beings deserve." Mr. Santorum has sponsored legislation that would offer international monitoring for a constitutional referendum in Iran, a campaign Mr. Ganji has helped organize.

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Last edited by cyrus on Fri Jul 15, 2005 5:13 pm; edited 1 time in total

Jailed Iranian dissident Akbar Ganji, pictured May 2005, who has been on hunger strike for over a month, is receiving regular medical treatment and will not be released from prison until his term is up, the judiciary said.(AFP/File/Atta Kenare)

Letter from Ganji

The following is excerpted from a letter by jailed Iranian Akbar Ganji.

"Islamic Prosecutor [Saeed Mortazavi] speaks openly of my death in prison. He told my wife: 'What if Ganji dies [in prison]? Dozens die in our jails every day; perhaps Ganji will be one of them.'

"What the Islamic prosecutor doesn't know is that Ganji may die, but the love of freedom, and the thirst for political justice will never die. Ganji may die, but humanism and the love of one's fellow man, and the hope and expectations for a better future, will never die.

"I will spend my time in solitary, but my heart will continue to beat for freedom. And some of the time I will hear prisoners cry for the windows of their solitary cells to be opened, to let the sun in."

White House Statement on a Call for the Unconditional Releases of Akbar Ganji in Iran
Akbar Ganji, an Iranian journalist who since 1999 has been routinely sentenced to prison by the Iranian government for advocating free speech, is again in jail because of his political views. Through his now month-long hunger strike, Mr. Ganji is demonstrating that he is willing to die for his right to express his opinion. President Bush is saddened by recent reports that Mr. Ganji's health has been failing and deeply concerned that the Iranian government has denied him access to his family, medical treatment, and legal representation. Mr. Ganji is sadly only one victim of a wave of repression and human rights violations engaged in by the Iranian regime. His calls for freedom deserve to be heard. His valiant efforts should not go in vain. The President calls on all supporters of human rights and freedom, and the United Nations, to take up Ganji's case and the overall human rights situation in Iran. The President also calls on the Government of Iran to release Mr. Ganji immediately and unconditionally and to allow him access to medical assistance. Mr. Ganji, please know that as you stand for your own liberty, America stands with you.
[White House]
______________________________________________________

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Tuesday expressed solidarity with jailed Iranian journalist Akbar Ganji, who is on a hunger strike, and urged human rights groups and the United Nations to push for his release.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan also said in a statement that President Bush was concerned about the health of Ganji, an outspoken critic of the Islamic state's clerical leadership who was jailed for alleging links between officials and the murders of political dissidents.

"Through his now monthlong hunger strike, Mr. Ganji is demonstrating that he is willing to die for his right to express his opinion," McClellan said.

"President Bush is saddened by recent reports that Mr. Ganji's health has been failing and deeply concerned that the Iranian government has denied him access to his family, medical treatment and legal representation," he added.

The statement also had a message for Ganji that "America stands with you."

The statement came after about 150 people held a demonstration in Tehran calling for Ganji's release. A Reuters journalist saw police beat several of the protesters.

McClellan said the United Nations and human rights groups should "take up Ganji's case and the overall human rights situation in Iran."

He said Iran should release Ganji unconditionally from his six-year jail sentence.

Ganji's family and lawyers say he is suffering from poor health and needs medical treatment outside prison. They say he has been on a hunger strike for more than 30 days.
Iranian judiciary officials say Ganji is in good health and is not on a hunger strike.
W.House urges release of jailed Iran journalist

TEHRAN - Jailed dissident Iranian writer Akbar Ganji has been admitted to hospital after being on hunger strike for more than a month, his wife said on Monday.

Ganji was taken to a hospital outside his Tehran prison on Sunday, the 37th day of his hunger strike, said Massoumeh Shafiie.

He was sentenced in 2001 to six years behind bars over articles he wrote linking senior regime officials, including ex-president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and former intelligence minister Ali Fallahian, to the serial murders of several intellectuals and writers.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - A jailed Iranian journalist was hospitalized Monday after he went on a hunger strike for more than a month, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

Akbar Ganji was sentenced to six years in jail in 2000 after he reported on the 1998 murders of five dissidents by Intelligence Ministry agents. The Intelligence Ministry blamed the murders on ``rogue agents,'' but Ganji's articles said the killings were ordered by senior hard-liners in the ruling Islamic establishment.

``My father was taken to hospital today. After hours of waiting, my mother and I were not allowed to visit him,'' the agency quoted the journalist's daughter, Rezvaneh Ganji, as saying. ``We heard about hospitalizatioir86n of my father from relatives, not through the judiciary,'' she said.

Doctors confirmed Ganji was admitted to a hospital but gave no details on his condition, she said.

Iran's hard-line judiciary has closed down more than 100 pro-democracy publications in the past five years, including the papers Ganji wrote for, on vague charges of blasphemy and insulting top clerics.

Iran's government told the United States Monday to stay out of Ganji's case after the White House called last week for his release.

``The reactions of foreigners and the United States about Ganji's case is an intervention,'' the Iranian news agency quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi as saying.

Calls to the hospital and the judiciary were not immediately returned.

A group of U.N. rights experts expressed ``profound concern'' Friday at the reported refusal of Iranian authorities to allow appropriate medical attention for Ganji.

Also Wednesday, 33 Iranian political activists asked the United Nations to press for Ganji's release, warning his life was in danger because of his monthlong hunger strike.

In May, Ganji was temporarily released from prison for medical care, ending a 43-day hunger strike. He returned to jail in June and resumed his strike. Since then, his health has been failing.

Jailed Iranian writer Akbar Ganji has been taken for hospital treatment, after more a month on hunger strike, his wife has told the BBC.
Massoumeh Shafieh said Mr Ganji was transferred late on Sunday, but she has not been allowed to visit him.

Mr Ganji was jailed over articles linking Iranian leaders with a series of political killings in the 1990s.

The US, EU and international human rights organisations have all called for his release.

BBC Tehran correspondent Frances Harrison says Mr Ganji has become a symbol of resistance for reformist politicians, students and activists in Iran.

Mrs Shafieh said she had been badly treated by police guarding her husband's hospital room where she waited for three hours before being pushed out.

She said she was worried because nobody told her why her husband had suddenly needed medical treatment.

"The fact that I am not authorised to see him is worrying me," she is quoted as saying.

Photographs have been circulating on the internet of an emaciated-looking Mr Ganji, which Mrs Shafieh says are genuine, although this has been disputed by hardline newspapers.

One hardline newspaper said nobody could take pictures inside a jail and alleged they had been doctored.

Mr Ganji was imprisoned for six years in 2001 but was granted temporary leave on 29 May for health grounds. He was imprisoned again two weeks later and has been on hunger strike ever since.

His wife claims the authorities have pledged never to release him unless he withdraws his accusations and apologises to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei.

However, our correspondent says that while in jail he has criticised the unchecked powers of Ayatollah Khamenei - something that is both a taboo and a crime in Iran.

Akbar Ganji is the Iranian journalist and dissident who for over a month now has been on hunger strike in Iran’s most infamous prison. Arrested in 2000 and ultimately sentenced to six years in jail for criticizing the regime, most notably in a series of articles he wrote implicating former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani in the murders of several dissidents and intellectuals, Ganji has become a symbol both inside Iran and out of the Islamic Republic’s techniques of repression and Iranians’ resistance. He published a powerful letter from prison after starting his hunger strike, and is reported to have recently written another. Yet his health has been deteriorating, and some say the indomitable Ganji could be near his end.

Amir Abbas Fakhravar, a political prisoner who has known Ganji and observed him closely for years, said in a phone interview from Iran last night that Ganji is in “terrible shape.” Another prisoner, says Fakhravar, saw that Ganji experienced great difficulty walking, standing, and even seeing and hearing, and that he refused intravenous feeding, which he has not received for days. “If this carries on, within 24 hours he will die,” says Fakhravar. “He has the conviction to go all the way to the end.” (A report last night suggested Ganji had been taken from the prison infirmary to the hospital, but the circumstances of his transfer remain unclear.)

President Bush has called for Ganji’s release, as have the State Department, several U.S. congressmen, and the European Union. Yet the Iranian judiciary has so far insisted he will not be freed, demanding that he receive medical treatment under official supervision. An Iranian news service reported that Ganji declared this weekend he would no longer cooperate with prison clinic officials, after the judiciary made inaccurate statements about his condition.

“If anything ever happens to Mr. Ganji,” says Fakhravar, who was himself arrested for criticizing the regime and sentenced to eight years in prison, “a revolution will happen in Iran…. [Ganji] knows his blood will create real turmoil, which the country will never come out of.” He continues, “Ganji is not a member of a particular opposition group or party, but every group loves him and has respect for him. The whole society will rise up.”

Fakhravar is hardly sanguine about the reaction such a popular uprising would generate — after all, he knows how the regime treats its critics. Still, he continues to make his views known, and has in fact just published his second book, he says, The Scraps of Prison, written half in Farsi and half in English. “[Iranian president Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad is the naked image of the Islamic Republic, without any mask,” Fakhravar says. “By all means, they will beat the hell out of the people. We want the world to look at us, so we won’t be forgotten. If the regime sees so many eyes on it, it won’t be as hard on us.”

As though by way of example, Fakhravar mentions one individual in particular, Sweden’s Fred Saberi, whom he credits for helping to call attention to the plight of Iran’s dissidents and ameliorate their treatment, including by securing temporary releases from prison. Fakhravar feels the U.S. government is also paying attention. Asked how dissidents reacted to President Bush’s statement calling for Ganji’s release, he says, “As a matter of fact, it had the most wonderful reaction, and not just among the opposition. For the first time we really felt the U.S. government and the American people are behind the Iranian struggle — that the support was not just rhetoric.”

But is the Bush administration prepared to handle the fallout that could result from further mistreatment of Akbar Ganji? The test could come soon.

— Rachel Zabarkes Friedman is a former associate editor of National Review.

Reporters Without Borders voiced outrage today at the refusal of the Iranian authorities to let the family and lawyer of imprisoned journalist Akbar Ganji visit him in the hospital to which he was rushed yesterday. Ganji has been on hunger strike for 37 days and has lost 22 kilos in weight.

"Ganji's family and lawyer must immediately be granted the right of visit allowed by Iran's laws, so that they can establish his state of health," the organisation said. "The attitude of the judicial authorities is unacceptable. They are directly responsible for his fate. A journalist cannot be allowed to slowly die and be denied the treatment he needs. That is a serious human rights violation."

Ganji was sentenced to six years in prison in 2001 for linking senior regime officials to a series of murders of writers and intellectuals. He has been held in Evin prison, where he began his hunger strike on 10 June. He was rushed yesterday to Milad public hospital north of Tehran. His wife told Reporters without borders she was worried and did not trust the Iranian authorities.

Calls for his release have been made by US President George Bush, the European Union and many international human rights organisations.

Reporters Without Borders hailed the decision of the Iranian authorities to let detained journalist Akbar Ganji out of prison today for an undetermined period so that he may receive medical treatment.

"We are pleased Akbar Ganji's demands have at last been heeded but we are monitoring developments closely and we will continue to keep up pressure on the Iranian authorities until Ganji has been granted an unconditional and definitive release and until the eight other detained journalists and three detained cyber-dissidents have been freed," the organization said.

Ganji told Reporters Without Borders after being let out today that Evin prison officials proposed to him on 28 May that he should be examined by two doctors chosen by his family to confirm his poor state of health and, on that basis, they would grant him permission to leave the prison.

When his wife and the doctors went to the prison yesterday, the guards told them their visit was no longer necessary as a decision had already been taken to let Ganji out for a week. But Ganji reacted by refusing the "offer" because he had been demanding a month-long exit permit. Guards finally came to his cell after midnight and told him he was being allowed out immediately, and they did not specify for how long. Ganji will be hospitalized for a week.

Pressure from international organizations, and from bloggers and other Internet users who have been constantly relaying developments about Ganji's state of health, almost certainly played a key role in this decision by the Iranian authorities.

Reporters Without Borders has called on the 25 EU foreign ministers and on Javier Solana, EU High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy, to do their utmost to press the Iranian authorities to respond to the demands of a hunger-striking prisoner.

Journalist Akbar Ganji, imprisoned for five years, is currently on an unlimited fast to claim the right to appropriate medical treatment and his general rights as a prisoner.

"The European Union which says it has opened a 'constructive dialogue' with Iran since 1998, has the duty to question the authorities to ensure that a major media figure and human rights activist does not die because of their inactivity," said Reporters Without Borders.

Akbar Ganji, detained unfairly for five years and hostage of the Iranian regime is now ill. Reporters Without Borders calls on the authorities to give immediate guarantees on the journalist's state of health. "In no case should his life be put at risk, neither on the basis of health nor because of ill-treatment, a commonplace occurrence at Evine Prison as several recent cases showed, including that of Iranian-Canadian journalist Zahra Kazemi", the organisation added.

"We also call on the European Commission to put pressure on the authorities to undertake an inspection of Iranian prisons, where a hunger strike has become the sole resort for journalists trying to obtain their rights as prisoners," it said.

Ganji began an "unlimited hunger strike" on 19 May 2005. He called it off on 24 may after negotiations with three prison officials who promised to give way to his demands the following week. But the following day, an assistant of the Tehran prosecutor accused him of lying and warned "the Ganji family not to continue with these lies". The journalist then told his family that he had decided to renew his fast "and this time to the end."

His wife, Masoleh Shafii, told Reporters Without Borders : "He is determined to go through to the end. He is sick and weak. As well as the fast, he has stopped taking his medication and his life is really in danger."

Ganji, who worked on the daily paper Sobh-e-Emrooz, was arrested on 22 April 2000 after appearing before the press court accused of writing that leading figures, including former President Hashemi Rafsanjani and former intelligence minister Ali Fallahian, had been involved in the murder of opponents and intellectuals in late 1998. He was also accused of taking part in a conference in Berlin about reform in Iran which the government charged was "anti-Islamic."

He was sentenced on 13 January 2001 to 10 years in prison but the appeal court reduced this to six months on 15 May 2001. However on 15 July 2001, the supreme court quashed the May sentence on technical grounds and imposed a six-year jail sentence.

He is being held in solitary confinement and, unlike other political prisoners, is not allowed to phone his wife, and is rarely allowed to leave the prison, although the law permits this. In the course of his five years in prison, he has been allowed only 40 day-passes, most of them for medical appointments. Hospital doctors have recommended that he be hospitalized for back problems and asthma, which has got worse because of his prison conditions, but the judicial authorities continue to block this. His lawyer, Nobel peace laureate Shirin Edabi, has voiced great concern about his state of health.

Over 15 years ago, Reporters without Borders created its "Sponsorship Programme" and called upon the international media to select and support an imprisoned journalist. More than two hundreds news staffs around the globe are thus sponsoring colleagues by regularly petitioning authorities for their release and by publicising their situations so that their cases will not be forgotten. Currently, Akbar Ganji is sponsored by Le Devoir, Nice-Matin, La Montagne.

Long ago in the beginings of American Democracy, a fellow said, "Give me liberty or give me death."

Cynic may suggest that the president's statement, calling for Ganji's release is politically motivated, and the regime calls it "interventionalist".

If anyone wonders why America stands with the Iranian people's persuit of liberty as you stand up for it yourselves....it is because it is as natural as breathing for us to do so. Just as we defeated Facism and Communism in Europe, by our support for those seeking freedom and intervention to acieve those results.

Interventionalist? Well, that can be taken two ways, some would see it as "interference", and others would welcome such moral support, sheading a spotlight on the regime's abysmal human rights record in the process.

Q: [US] President [George W.] Bush yesterday said that the case of Akbar Ganji, who was rearrested in Iran, should be taken [up] by the UN. Do you have anything to say about the case of dissidents in Iran and specifically about Akbar Ganji?

SG: I don't know enough about the case, and so I'd prefer not to comment.

------------------

He's being asked about a "specific" case, and though he does know something about it, he is indicating he may not be up on the most recent developments, and/or had not read Ganji's letter of the 10th yet..so he refrained from comment.

The following is very carefully worded, and in all diplomatic political correctness..seems to me like a friendly word of warning...to the Iranian delegation.

----------------

AT 2005 SUMMIT, WORLD MUST COMMIT DECISIVELY TO PATH OF COOPERATION, SOLIDARITY,

SAYS SECRETARY-GENERAL, IN MESSAGE TO TEHRAN CONFERENCE

Following is UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s message to the International Conference on United Nations Reform, delivered by Edward Mortimer, Director of Communications in the Office of the Secretary-General, in Tehran, 17-18 July:

I send my greetings to all those attending this very timely conference, and my particular thanks to the Institute for Political and International Studies for hosting it. You meet at an important moment for the United Nations, and indeed for our global community. Just last month, we celebrated the sixtieth anniversary of the signing of the United Nations Charter. But our minds are on the future, not on the past. We are deep in debate and discussion about how to adapt our collective responses and our shared institutions to the needs of a rapidly changing world.

I will come to those vital issues in a moment -- but first, let me stress that no reform proposals, however important, should distract us from certain urgent tasks, particularly the need to resolve protracted conflicts and ensure that countries in difficult transitions receive the support they need. That is why the United Nations will continue to work for peace and stability based on democratic self-government in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as many other countries, and for a just and lasting peace between Palestinians and Israelis. Iran has an important contribution to make to the solution of many of these problems, as well as to our collective global response to global challenges. I look forward to continuing to work with the authorities of the Islamic Republic under its newly elected President, His Excellency Mr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as I have done with the outgoing government, and I hope to have the pleasure of meeting him at the 2005 World Summit in New York in September.

We are now in the midst of a far-reaching attempt to reform the concepts, structures and processes through which we work as an international community, so that we are better able to mount effective collective responses to the needs of States and individuals around the world. The Summit will be a unique opportunity to do just that. That is why -- on 21 March, the Iranian New Year’s Day -- I put forward a comprehensive set of proposals for renewal in my report entitled “In larger freedom: towards development, security and human rights for all”.

Last month the President of the General Assembly put forward a draft document setting out the political outcome on which he believes heads of State and government should be able to agree at the Summit. That document addresses all the major issues, and reflects points raised by Member States during several months of deliberations. Further consultations are now being carried out on the basis of the draft, and I believe a new version should be available later this week.

The reform agenda is of vital interest to Iran, as to other countries in this region, and I believe you have a major contribution to make.

As a starting point, let me recall the importance of a culture of peace, and the need to build and strengthen it at both the national and the international levels. We must educate ourselves and our societies to go beyond stereotypes of each other, and to avoid simplistic categorizations that exacerbate misunderstandings and prevent real problems being tackled. That is why, since Iran first suggested it in 1998, I have strongly supported efforts to promote a dialogue among civilizations, through the United Nations, and I continue to do so.

Any culture of peace is threatened by resort to terrorism, which Iran -- like too many other countries -- has experienced at first hand. Terrorism does not emanate from any particular religion or ideology, nor is it directed only at certain countries or certain people. We are all potential targets, and we must truly confront this phenomenon as an international community. To do so, we must agree how to define it, and adopt a comprehensive convention outlawing it in all its forms. While I am fully aware of the sensitivities and concerns that exist on this issue, I believe we must be able to agree that the legitimate right of a people to resist foreign occupation does not and cannot include the right to deliberately kill or maim civilians and non-combatants.

We must also build a culture of full respect for human rights. If we are to restore human rights to the place intended for them by the United Nations Charter, we need a fresh start. The establishment of a Human Rights Council, which is gathering broad support from around the world, would go a long way to restore the credibility of the international human rights machinery.

A culture of respect for human rights must, in my view, include an acknowledgement of the responsibility to protect civilian populations from genocide, ethnic cleansing and other such heinous crimes. That responsibility rests, first and foremost, with each sovereign State. As necessary, the international community should, through diplomatic, humanitarian and other peaceful means, encourage and help States to exercise this responsibility. If, and only if, such means fail, and a State appears wholly unable or unwilling to assume its responsibilities, the international community should, as a last resort, accept that it has a shared responsibility to take collective action, through the United Nations Security Council. I believe the World Summit is an occasion to embrace this concept of the responsibility to protect, and the sequential approach that it entails. This would benefit all States by making clear the principles on which the international community intends to act. It would also remove the pretext for, and thereby reduce the prospect of, unilateral humanitarian intervention by any individual State or group of States.

A related area where there is need for greater clarity is the rules governing the use of force by States. Let me stress that no one is proposing to alter Article 51 of the Charter, which safeguards the inherent right of individual and collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and security. I know that this is a point of great sensitivity for Iranians, since the Security Council failed to take such measures when Iran was attacked in 1980, and Iran was left to exercise its right of self-defence on its own.

But when it is proposed to use force, not in self-defence against an actual or imminent attack, but to deal with a latent or non-imminent threat, then, I believe, the decision must be made not by individual States but collectively by the Security Council, fulfilling one of the Purposes of the United Nations as set out in Article 1 of the Charter, namely “to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace”. I have suggested that the Security Council should consider adopting a resolution setting out the principles by which it would be guided in making such decisions. But discussion of this may need to continue in other fora, before it gets considered by the Council.

Meanwhile, the recent failure of States Parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to reach agreement at the 2005 Review Conference is an obvious cause for concern. Nevertheless, the central obligations and rights conferred by the Treaty continue to enjoy full support. The Treaty remains the cornerstone of the global arms control and disarmament regime, with important implications for development, as well. I believe the World Summit offers us a vital opportunity to reaffirm these principles, and to renew the commitment of all States to disarmament and non-proliferation. We must focus on the long-term question of disarmament -- especially as we mark the sixtieth anniversary of the use of nuclear weapons at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Summit also offers an opportunity to seek broad consensus on other important issues such as access to the nuclear fuel cycle in conformity with the rights and obligations of States Parties under the Treaty, and adoption of the IAEA Additional Protocol as the new global standard for verification. I know that these and other issues are of pressing concern to Iran. At this time especially all States Parties need to use great restraint in exercising their rights under the Treaty. The emphasis must, in my view, be on maintaining constructive dialogue as the surest route to agreement.

These and other proposals on security and human rights must be seen in the broader reform context -- a context in which development has pride of place. Important steps have recently been announced on the development front by the European Union and the Group of Eight. All countries, both developed and developing, must do their part to ensure that, between now and the year 2015, the fight against poverty and disease is taken to a new level. We need an all-out global effort to meet the Millennium Development Goals in the next decade, and to ensure that the benefits of globalization are more equally shared.

My friends, we have embarked on an ambitious project of reform and renewal. A great deal is at stake. All that we are doing harks back to the vision of the Millennium Declaration, which captured the hopes of humankind for a safer, more just and more prosperous world. As I have said before, the international community has reached a fork in the road. One path leads to a more anarchic, conflict-ridden world of entrenched poverty; the other to increased global cooperation and solidarity. I urge all participants in this conference to do their utmost to make sure that we use September’s World Summit to commit ourselves decisively to the latter path.

Now, in my opinion, if I were going to draft a letter to the UN, in regards to Mr. Ganji, I would place his circumstance in context with the following, as his is but one case in a multitude of sins committed over the years by the IRI.

IF STATE UNABLE, UNWILLING TO PROTECT CITIZENS AGAINST EXTREME VIOLENCE, SECURITY

COUNCIL MUST ASSUME RESPONSIBILITY, SECRETARY-GENERAL TELLS COUNCIL

Following are UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s remarks at the Security Council debate on the role of the Security Council in humanitarian crises, in New York, 12 July:

Let me thank you for convening this thematic debate. The topic you have chosen is particularly timely, since in these days we are marking the tenth anniversary of a dark moment in the history of the United Nations.

On 11 July 1995, Srebrenica -- a place which this Council had proclaimed a “safe area”, and which was manned by United Nations peacekeeping forces -- fell to the attacking Serb forces. On 13 July, the systematic killing of Muslim men and boys began. As we reflect on those shameful events, we are reminded that, whenever the Security Council takes responsibility for protecting civilians, it must craft an unambiguous mandate, and provide adequate resources to do the job properly, and everyone involved -- from the Council itself, the broader membership of the Organization and the Secretariat here in New York to our personnel on the ground -- must fully understand the expectations they have aroused among people desperate for protection in the face of grave danger.

But the truth is, your theme could be taken as encompassing almost the whole of the Council’s current agenda, since almost every crisis that the Council has to deal with includes a humanitarian dimension. Indeed, it is often the sheer scale of human suffering, more than anything else, that impels the international community to intervene.

Our task should be to prevent such suffering. All too often we fail to do so, because we do not recognize the gravity of the threat until too late.

That is why I believe Member States should recognize that, whenever a particular State is unable or unwilling to protect its citizens against extreme violence, there is a collective responsibility of all States to do so -– a responsibility which must be assumed by this Council.

Debate tends to focus on the extreme cases where only forceful intervention can halt the bloodshed. Yet the earlier we tackle the crisis by other means, the better our chance of preventing it from reaching that point.

I therefore join you, Mr. President, in stressing the importance of helping to prevent future conflicts, by addressing their root causes.

The Council has already adopted important resolutions on this subject, and I have devoted several reports to it. In a few days’ time, a major civil society conference on prevention will be held here at United Nations Headquarters. In the light of that conference’s deliberations, I hope the Council will return to it in the near future, focusing especially on the practical modalities.

Meanwhile, the Council has a heavy caseload of countries already affected by conflict, or tentatively emerging from it. The most frustrating cases are countries which relapse into conflict only a few years after the international community has helped them emerge from it. We have learnt from bitter experience that peacebuilding, in order to be successful, needs to be sustained over a period of years, and to include a broad range of tasks. These include reintegrating and rehabilitating demobilized combatants; helping societies and markets to recover their vitality; and -- most crucially of all -- strengthening the capacity of State and social institutions to provide security and justice, based on the rule of law.

In a moment, the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations will speak in more detail about the problems of providing genuine security in a post-conflict situation.

For my part, I wish briefly to stress the importance of the rule of law. This is something that cannot be imposed from outside. Local actors must genuinely understand that only confidence in the rule of law will ensure lasting security, by enabling people of different factions or communities to rely on the forces of the State, rather than factional militias, for protection. And for this to happen, courts and other institutions must be based not on an imported model, but on the culture and traditions of the local society.

The role of the international community is to galvanize and provide technical assistance to this process, while making sure that all national actors are included in it. And it must do so in a coordinated fashion. Different parts of the United Nations system, including the international financial institutions, need to cooperate closely both with each other and with bilateral donors and troop contributors. Ensuring this coordination is one of the roles I hope to see filled by the new Peacebuilding Commission, which I hope Member States will agree to create at the World Summit in September.

That Commission should help to sustain the international focus on peacebuilding tasks in countries which, thanks to the cessation of active hostilities, are no longer intensively covered in the news media. And, by bringing together the different international and regional actors involved in such countries, it should harmonize peacebuilding activity across the multilateral system.

As an advisory body, the Commission would neither encroach on the authority, nor dilute the responsibility, of this Council. No matter how effective the Commission may be, you in this Council will continue to bear the responsibility of devising and adopting the mandates under which the United Nations operates in war-torn countries. And therefore you will still have the responsibility of ensuring that those mandates are both broad and long enough to give the affected countries a real chance of developing the institutions and attitudes needed to sustain the rule of law. Only when that is achieved can a country hope to break decisively with the cycle of violence.